Windows XP forum: Windows XP Media Center vs. XP Pro

Hi - I am considering purchasing an HP Pavillion zd8000. The main question/concern I have is this:Is XP Media Center based on XP Pro with all the media bells and whistles added, or as I read in a CNET article from Dec 2004, is it based on XP Home. I called HP and their frienly phone rep said XP Media Center is "Definitely" based on XP Pro....but well, never trust a salesperson?!?I need the XP Pro for my day to day use - the media center stuff just makes this a better purchase due to the added features.Thanks!

Bob - Thanks for the info. I understand your perspective, but there are differences between XP Pro and XP Home. My question really surrounds the networking and security features that are in XP Pro. Additionally,I will be running SPSS, SAS and a host of other business apps. I just don't want to shell out the bucks only to find out that the platform is not what I thought it was....and can't meet my computing requirements.Thanks...

i have install media centre before, it came with two cds, one was xp pro and the other was the media centre addons. i stopped the installation and did not put in the 2nd cd and i had a fully opperation xp pro installation.

Windows MCE is XP pro with a set of extensions which handle the multimedia interfaces. The system provides all the extra securities of adminstrator, user privileges, network securities the the full XP pro provides. At present Microsoft only officially distributes MCE to OEM manufaturers for installation on fully configured multimedia systems. The manufacturer is expected to provide the multimedia support. That makes an MCE computer a bargain way to get XP pro as well as multimedia functionality.

Ok - I am confused which is not anything new. On Microsoft's web site, check out this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/evaluation/features.mspxThere it says:"All the Benefits of Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP SP2Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is the first consumer OS built on top of the Windows XP Home and Service Pack 2 (SP2) foundation with Advanced Security Technologies including Windows Firewall, Pop-up Blocker for Internet Explorer, and the new Windows Security Center, all while offering all of the features available today in Windows XP Home Edition."

Hi,AS I DISCOVERED THAT AS SOON AS MEDIA CENTER FEATURES INSTALLED IN FULLY FUNCTIONAL XP PRO, YOU CAN SAFELY FORGET ABOUT NETWORKING.DOMAIN CHANGE WILL BE DISABLED OR BE MORE SPECIFIC YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO JOIN ANY DOMAIN AT ALL, ONLY WORKGROUPS WILL BE YOUR OPTION.Basically Media center installation downgraded XP PRO to Home edition.I can not say what would happens if you setup all networking on XP PRO before you install media center.Try and let us know.

I have three media center computer and all three ARE NTSC formated, so I'm not sure what you mean by them not being an NTSC OS. I do believe MCE is more like home than pro, for the litter differences between them, as it does not connect to a domain as I understand. Mine has only simple file sharing and not the advanced sharing my pro version has. Otherwise my media center computers are just like my other computers, outside the mce features.

While you can access network resources on a work network or a domain, you cannot join a Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC to the domain. PCs running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 are designed specifically for home use. Windows XP Professional features, specifically Domain Join and Cached Credentials (Credentials Manager for logons) are not included. As a result, you will be prompted for your logon user name and password to access network resources after you reboot or log back on to the PC. In addition, file shares or network resources that are set to require a domain-joined PC for access will not be available. Remote Desktop and Encrypting File System support are still

If you are required to log in to your office NT Domain tree from home you must have XP Pro to do the job. This can be used to give you authentication, DHCP, MS Mail Server to use with full Outlook, and the entire Back Office suite. Lots of capabilities both on site and at home, especially when using a secure tunneling scheme such as VPN. Those at the office are using NAT IP addresses starting with 192 or 10 as a further protection; and to get into your corporate network you will need to get a phony IP too assigned by DHCP. But, the main thing is Pro supports Domains, so if you need to connect to your domain from home you need Pro. Ask your IT shop.

As for XP Media Center edition, who knows? You might want to couch your question as to whether Media Center supports NT Domains and see what answer you get. If your IT folks are experienced they may have had a difficult support case in the past where the employee purchased Media Center edition thinking it was an extension of XP Pro and caused a lot of trouble for themselves due to the lack of domains. In this case, you can deduce that it is an extension of XP Home (and that the employee had to purchase Pro and reload his computer from scratch.)

I hope this helps. I may be out of date as I have been retired as IT director for a year and a half and haven't kept up because I didn't have to . If so, I apologize in advance and am counting on folks who know better to add their knowledge here, correct me, and send me on my way!

Home has a lime green scrolling progress bar on the black XP screen when the OS is loading, Professional has a blue scrolling progress bar. Not sure if that carries over to MCE but that is one way to tell at a glance which version of XP is loading.

Unfortunately, Microsoft's website does not answer this question directly, but hopefully you'll find the following excerpt helpful:

"While you can access network resources on a work network or a domain, you cannot join a Windows XP Media Center 2005 PC to the domain. PCs running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 are designed specifically for home use. Professional features, specifically Domain Join and Cached Credentials (Credentials Manager for logins) are not included. As a result, you will be prompted for your login username/password to access network resources after a reboot or logging back into the PC. In addition, file shares or network resources set to require a domain-joined PC for access will not be available. Remote Desktop and Encrypting File System support are still included."

Well, i've been waiting for this discussion. I have HP 5 products, two printers, one ADF Scanner, iPAQ 5555, ZD7000 wide screen Media Center.I'd say buy it. But, be aware, be very awary, the machine or the software is 'berry unstrawble' I constantly have to shut down, every other week, unhook everything, even the cable from the wall socket to get the remote to working again. Today, it is locked again. Office 2003 is extremely unstable. It freezes a dozen times a day with no more one other program running, if you count forwarding as a program running, which i don't. I will try to talk with HP again, again, again, again, again--get the picture: I'm disappointed. And the warranty for nearly 300 dollars: well, guess who HP favors with that? HP. I had to sent the machine in twice: the same day i got it returned for the first repair, it went out again. Sadly, until i got blunt and talk bluntly did i finally get customer service. i'm trapped now with HP. i feel as though i have to buy tablet 4200 so that i can be capatible with the other stuff; but, god, i'm scared sh------ to do!

XP Media Center is "Definitely" based on XP Pro like the sales guy said. If you were to buy the full version of XP Media Center 2005 then you would get 2 CD's. One XP Pro and one with the media center enhancements. It is great!

and although you are correct when you say that media center is "based on XP Pro" because it is a correct statement that gives the wrong impression (that it includes XP Pro capabilities).

Windows XP Home is ALSO based on Windows XP Pro--it just doesn't have some of the components and capabilities. The same is true of Windows Media Center--it lacks some of XP Pro's capabilities (Media Center will not join to a Domain, nor can it cache credentials, nor will it make use of multiple processors) but it adds some of its own that XP Pro lacks. As Microsoft states, Windows Media Center is a HOME OS rather than a functional BUSINESS OS -- "PCs running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 are designed specifically for home use."

In short, if one needs everything that XP Pro provides in an OS avoid Media Center as it does not have it all--many capabilities are removed. On the other hand if one needs more than XP Home offers but no need for multiple processors or joining domains or certain other features of Pro one should get Media Center as it does offer Remote Desktop and encrypted file system

This thread is reminiscent of the discussions involving the differences between NT Workstation and NT Server when NT 3.0 was initially released and it took a long time for people to accept that "BASED ON" is a relative statement that is considerably different than "Same features and capabilities as".

If new releases of XP HMC are based on XP Home and the package comes with an install cd for XP Home and an install cd for the XP HMC upgrade, does that mean that if I purchase a Dell PC with the XP HMC OS option and I already have a clean install cd for XP Pro, can I then just install XP Pro and then upgrade it with the extra XP HMC cd and bypass XP Home and all its Dell-tweaked options altogether?

I don't have it, but from what I gather, XP MCE is half-way between Home and Pro. It's based on Home, since it was designed for home-use only, but also supports Remote Desktop Connecton and Encryption. If possible, check if your software works on another MC PC, just to be sure.

Is 2004 based on Pro? This is very confusing. Would MC go good for a person who does stuff like: web design, programming, 3D modeling, music, graphic design? And I'm talking hard-core, where every detail counts. Is there any advantage in MC? I use the network a lot but I don't connect to a domain or anything.

My question is If i have XP pro running on my laptop and my home system is XP MCE will i run into issues with file transfers or back up issues if i'm using their personal media storage. Cause if my HD crashes on either machine how diffucult will it be to pick up the pieces and reinstall. Cause XP Pro has a restore option but this dosen't always work and will XP MCE be able to do the same thing? People will get crazy if they lose pics and video so storage file structure is going to be tanamount to the home user.

Which brings me to my conundrum - sp? If they want us to use this system XP MCE like a power user (video, photo manipulation) shouldn't we get all the admin network features that XP PRO users do too?

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